


Stars

by ProbablyARaccoon



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Future Fic, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, My First AO3 Post, Oneshot, Post-Episode: s05e04 Lars' Head, Spoilers, Spoilers for Episode: s05e04 Lars' Head
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 03:50:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11119305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProbablyARaccoon/pseuds/ProbablyARaccoon
Summary: It was strange how fifty years could pass so quickly. Fifty years of memories, good and bad, on a planet that changed a million times a second. More than fifty, Steven realized as he closed his eyes and breathed in the salty air. Darn near close to sixty, or even seventy. Lars had told him to stop counting, said it was easier that way.





	Stars

**Author's Note:**

> *casually blows dust off my writing folder* I haven't written fanfiction in years, but the Wanted special dragged this one out of me. Thanks for reading! <3

It was strange how fifty years could pass so quickly. Fifty years of memories, good and bad, on a planet that changed a million times a second. More than fifty, Steven realized as he closed his eyes and breathed in the salty air. Darn near close to sixty, or even seventy. Lars had told him to stop counting, said it was easier that way.

“You know, eventually that cliff is gonna crumble right out from under you, Universe.”

Steven raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement, but didn’t take his gaze from the sunset. He heard Lars shuffle beside him to sit down, before he settled and swung his legs over the side of the cliff. “Whattcha doin’?” He asked with a grunt, like the whole motion had taken an annoying amount of effort.

“Waiting for the stars,” Steven said with a smile, kicking his legs against the face of the rock. He unfolded his hands from out of his lap and braced against them as he leaned back. The sky was painted with hues of pink and orange, a cascade of purple peeking out over the horizon to swallow the sun. A vortex of flat clouds, as pink as the sky, shrouded only a small amount of stars that were starting to fade into existence.

With all the places Steven had ventured, none of them came close to the stunning atmosphere of Beach City. He was biased, considering it was his one and only home, but he would stick to that conclusion for as long as he lived. No matter how many years that would be.

“Absolutely thrilling.” Lars feigned a disinterested pout before he cast a casual smile down at his friend. He had a meditation session with Garnet soon, yet didn’t seem to be in any hurry.

For Lars, life in Beach City turned into days watching the rest of the world spin without him. He hadn’t aged a day since his brush with death on Homeworld. He couldn’t even change his hair, which stayed fixed in its youthful, floofy style - and always a very soft pink. Explaining his new condition to his friends and family had taken a long time, and it took even longer for him to come to terms with it himself. He had no choice but to sit back and let the lives of everyone he knew continue to move forward, while he was stuck in a new sense of reality. It took a long time for him to stop feeling bitter.

Beach City itself had been showing its age for many years now. New businesses and residents had come and gone. Eventually, it became little more than a tourist destination, famous for its quirky and mysterious history. Mr Smiley’s grandson, being the con-artist he was, made a pretty good profit in convincing tourists that the rotting remains of Funland were haunted.

The Gems didn’t seem to care much, given how accustomed they were to the city morphing around them, but Steven and Lars missed the lights that used to fill the old amusement park every evening. A piece of their childhoods flickered out the day the place shut down for good.

“Remember the year that massive storm hit the beach? It flooded so much that Sour Cream dared himself to dive off the cliff.”

“Yeah, then his mom found out and you could hear her yelling at him from clear across the city.” Lars snickered at the memory. He almost forgot about that, despite it being a popular story to tell for everyone who knew Sour Cream. After so many decades, Steven was the only one left who could remind him of it.

A breeze picked up, shaking the long grass blades. Lars’ smile fell, and he dragged his focus to a ring he wore on his left hand.

Despite his young appearance, Lars held a maturity that shone in his eyes and in how he carried himself. When the Cool Kids were replaced with a new set of cool kids, with new trends and behaviors that were harder to understand than the ones from his own generation, Lars retreated from most of Beach City. He recoiled from the younger crowd, made up of children too young to know who Lars was when he was just a normal slacker working at a donut shop. They whispered in awe of the so-called “pink teen” who never seemed to age, and their curious stares were poisonous to him. Instead, he found better companionship with his aging parents and the Crystal Gems.

It took Lars a good while to warm up to the Gems. Amethyst was loud and obnoxious, who Lars found to have very little sense of personal space. Garnet sort of scared him with her composure that often came off as blunt and intimidating. Pearl was unapologetic in her skepticism of his new abilities, and wasn’t the best at hiding her discomfort of his new link with Steven. It was clear that Lapis Lazuli wanted little to do with him, or that was how he took her lack of enthusiasm to his presence. Yet, out of them all, Peridot was the hardest to accept. Her over-inflated ego suffocated Lars and his shaky confidence. Fortunately for him, she was short and easily distracted.

The success of Connie’s presence, however, made the Gems more receptive to further non-gem additions. And Steven held the door to his family wide open, an ever welcoming and warm beacon of light. Now, Lars spent his days at the temple as a full-fledged member of the Crystal Gems, as shown by the stars emblazoned in his gauge plugs. Though, it wasn’t too uncommon for him to slip away without a word, where he would stroll down to the cemetery to visit specific graves.

Meanwhile, Steven remained a friendly face around Beach City. He connected with many of the current residents and passing tourists, who all smiled at him like the citizens he’d originally known. But they couldn’t fill the place of the people he lost, who he had watched move away and grow old. The sandwich shop that sat where Beach Citywalk Fries once stood could never truly replace it, even if the two women who ran it were wonderful people. The current arcade was filled with games Steven didn’t recognize, but he still found them fun to play. The new mayor was a responsible man, but he didn’t have a son as cool as Buck Dewey.

No matter how well Steven got along with the new friends he made, they weren’t Peedee and Ronaldo, Kiki and Jenny, or Sour Cream and Onion. He missed seeing Vidalia’s paintings, and trying Kofi’s new pizza recipes. Above all, he missed the car wash, which closed the month of his dad’s passing. On quiet evenings like this, he realized he missed a lot of things.    

Brought out of his trance by the close cry of a seagull, Steven stole a glance at his friend.

Lars sat with his head down, focused on the ring he was twisting around his finger. It matched the promise ring he had given Sadie on her twentieth birthday, right before she headed off for her second year of college.

He never saw her again. His parents, as gentle as they were, had attempted to comfort him with the harsh truth that most people don’t keep their first loves. It didn’t help, but Lars appreciated their effort. He wasn’t proud to admit the fit of rage and heartbreak he threw once he realized she was gone, nor how he bitterly cursed Sadie’s memory for years afterward. He still couldn’t look at donuts, his old Big Donut uniform, or cheesy horror movies without her name stabbing his thoughts. Despite it all, he couldn’t bring himself to take off his promise ring.

“You thinking about her?”

Lars nodded.

“I’m sorry.”

“S’fine.” He spun the band until the little engraved heart stared up at him like it always did. He twisted it around again. “She deserved better than me. Even after I became,” he turned his palms up to study his pink skin, “… _this_ , I didn’t treat her as well as I should have, Steven.” He sighed and closed his eyes, “I just hope she’s happy…Was happy. Wherever she went.”

Steven offered a sympathetic expression, but looked back up at the sky when he realized his friend wasn’t going to see it. He was quiet for a long moment, counting the stars that were a little brighter than the others. Finally, with a more upbeat tone in his voice, he changed the subject. “I think I can talk Peridot and Pearl into converting my dad’s van into a spaceship.”

Lars snorted and dropped his attention down to Steven. “Oh yeah? What for?” The old hunk of metal hadn’t moved in decades, though the back of it remained a good hangout spot and a great place to pick up some inspiration. It’s what Greg would have wanted.

“To, you know…Travel the cosmos. See the universe. My mom traveled the earth, so I should travel what’s left,” he lifted his arms up, gesturing with his open hands to the great vastness amongst the stars. “Like in my dad’s old songs.”

Lars kept his amused smirk. The Universe boy would never change, even if his increased maturity allowed him to look a few years older. His enthusiasm would keep him young forever. “Don’t you, like…Still need to eat? And breathe? I don’t think you can pack all that in an old van for a trip through space. Sorry to burst your magic bubble.”

Steven lowered his hands to the grass, casting Lars an unamused, half-lidded stare. “I thought you were supposed to be more positive.”

“I try, but someone’s gotta keep you grounded. Connie isn’t around anymore, so I guess it’s my job now.” Lars, hands in mid-shrug, caught himself as he saw Steven clench his fingers into the grass. “Ah, sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned…uh,” Lars stammered and looked away, sheepishly scratching the back of his head

“It’s okay.”

It wasn’t okay, but he knew Lars hadn’t meant any harm. Connie’s absence was a hole in his heart that would never go away, like the one Sadie left in Lars’ heart.

After Connie graduated high school, she approached her friends and family with a grand and adventurous idea. While taking a couple years off from school, she wanted to enrich her experiences far past Beach City. She wanted to walk similar paths the Crystal Gems had in their early days on Earth, and see the rest of the world as she went. Delighted when her parents finally gave their blessing, she just about jumped for joy when Steven agreed to join her.

One year after they set off, a blink of an eye for the Gems, Steven returned alone. He was somber, lifeless, and didn’t want to talk about it despite all the souvenirs he had dragged home with him. Connie was gone forever - that was all he could bring himself to say at the temple, and all anyone needed to know.

Lars couldn’t imagine what happened, but he knew there were a couple things left in the pocket dimension of his hair. Two items delicately placed under the oak tree, like the cherished artifacts left under the older acacia tree across the way: Rose’s sword, and a memory chest that sat beside the one made for Greg Universe.

Now it was Lars’ turn to quietly stare at Steven, who was focused on the ocean. Even from the angle they were sitting at, he could see the small wrinkles that formed below Steven’s eyes. The youth in those eyes drained fast, leaving them so dull that not even the glow of the sunset reached them. They betrayed how long Steven had lived, the eyes of an old man who had seen things he never wanted to see again. Lars huffed out a soft exhale in thought, before speaking up again. “You want to join Garnet and me tonight?” He jabbed his thumb back towards the house, “Meditating might help.”

Steven sighed, still not looking away from the waves.

“You can sing the song,” Lars added, playfully nudging Steven’s shoulder. When he didn’t get much of a response, he slumped his shoulders and folded his arms over his knees. Though his suggestion failed, it jogged the memory of that first session - one of the first activities he spent with Steven’s family after he returned to Earth. He could still hear it all so vividly, especially that damn song.  

 

_You should sing the song, Garnet!”_

_“There’s a song?”_

_“I think you should sing it, Steven.”_

_“Can we do this without singing?”_

_“ ~ Here comes a thought, that might alarm you. What someone said, and how it harmed you…Something you did, that failed to be charming. Things that you said, are suddenly swarming ~ “_

_“Oh my God, no…”_

Lars would later come to know that it was a meditation technique meant to help fusions keep together. Regardless, it was also successful in easing his mind like nothing had before. Garnet was a very wise teacher, even if she was capable of snapping Lars in half.

Steven never did manage to fuse with Lars. They had been bonded for a lifetime, courtesy of Steven’s gem, so it wouldn’t be difficult to attempt. Nonetheless, it never happened. From the outside, it appeared to be from Lars no longer being a human. At least, not as human as he had been before the Gem war reached modern society. On the other hand, he wasn’t a Gem either. There was no word, on Earth or Homeworld or anywhere in-between, that could describe what state of being he was. He was… _Lars_. Like Lion was just _Lion_.

No, it made more sense that Steven’s refusal to fuse with him was out of respect for Connie. He couldn’t carry on with a new fusion with another non-gem friend. Not yet. There were too many emotions and thoughts and regrets, too much agony and guilt that would spoil the introduction of a new fusion. Above all else, he wasn’t ready to leave Stevonnie behind.

“Nah, maybe next time.”

The crashing waves filled their silence, and for a moment it appeared one of them might stand up and leave the other to his thoughts. Instead, Lars dragged in a deep, meaningful breath.

“If you do leave Earth, I’m coming with.”

That caught Steven off guard. “Really?” He turned his gaze up at Lars, giving him his full attention. Stars popped in his eyes, shining as bright as his grin. All traces of age vanished from his face.

“Yeah. I have to.”

“You do?” Steven raised an eyebrow, confused by Lars’ reasoning.

“Your stuff is in my head, Steven,” Lars deadpanned, pointing to his hair.

“Well, you __do__  keep it safe.”

Lars snorted again. “You’re a weird guy, Mr.Universe.” He reached out and ruffled Steven’s hair, a feat still so easy with the half-gem remaining so short.

“Mr.Universe was my father,” Steven retorted with a laugh, trying to swat the taller man’s hand from his hair. “Just Steven is fine.”

Lars groaned and shoved Steven’s head. He paused, then leaned over his companion to rest both arms over his head. Despite the height difference, Steven made an excellent pillow. Lars exhaled through his nose and let his full weight relax, knowing his friend could hold it with ease. Once he was comfortable, he lazily stared at the horizon. The sun had finally vanished, and the stars were chasing away the small swirls of pink that lingered.

“Yeah, traveling through the stars sounds nice. I’ll give you that.”

A peaceful smile passed over Steven’s face. He closed his eyes and placed a hand over his gleaming gem.  


End file.
